LAHORE: The Regional Tax Office-II (RTO-II) collected Rs 57,191 million in fiscal year 2013-14, Rs 65,648 million in fiscal year 2014-15 and a record Rs 82,682 million during fiscal year 2015-16, RTO-II Chief Commissioner Khawaja Adnan Zaheer has told Customs Today in an exclusive interview.
Answering a question, the chief commissioner said that the RTO-II Lahore was made operational in 2011. It was established after splitting the jurisdiction of the Regional Tax Office Lahore on territorial as well as geographical basis. Presently, it encompasses territorial jurisdiction of Gulberg Town, Nishtar Town, Samanabad Town and Allama Iqbal Town and geographically districts of Okara and Kasur.
He said that during the month of June 2016, record collection of Rs10383 million has been made by RTO-II Lahore which is first time in the history of the region since its establishment as against its fixed budgetary targets of Rs10231 million under all heads. RTO-II collected Rs 5868m as income tax, Rs4488 million as sales tax and Rs 27 million under the head of federal excise duty (FED) during the month of June.
Chief Commissioner Khawaja Adnan Zaheer said that record growth of income tax 30%, sales tax domestics 23%, is witnessed during the month of June. Overall growth during the month of June is shown at 23% as compared to last year which is a record. It was also observed that the Region focused on continuous stringent audit of withholding agents and ensured timely payment of taxes throughout the year. Such monitoring system yielded annual growth of 21% which is in line with national growth.
Chief Commissioner, Khawaja Adnan Zaheer, who took over the charge of the Region in the month of February 2016 informed that the Region adopted best international human rights practices based on trust, reward, confidence and work support policy. The Chief Commissioner informed that a lot of new administrative initiatives have been introduced in the Region according to policies of FBR. The persistent success of the Region is due to continuous support of FBR headquarter by supporting the administrative reforms and its HR policies. The Chief Commissioner also acknowledged the hard work of RTO officials as they put endless efforts in order to meet the assigned targets.
He informed that RTO-II conducted audit of 1500 withholding agents and issued notices in 650 cases, which helped in recovering Rs 564 million during current tax year.
He further said that ten Town Municipal Administrations (TMAs) fell under the jurisdiction of the RTO-II that include Renala Khurd, Depalpur, Okara, Pattoki, Chunian, Kasur, Gulberg Town, Iqbal Town, Samanabad Town and Nishter Town. He said that tax officials visited the TMAs on a routine basis to recover the taxes, adding that RTO-II has recovered Rs 75 million as WHT from the towns during the year.
On the directions of the FBR, a special focus has been put on the collection of withholding tax in order to meet the revenue targets, he said, adding that refunds were being issued to the taxpayers after proper scrutiny.
In order to recover stuck up amount of taxes, the FBR has moved different courts, tribunals and Inland Revenue (IR) Appeals to decide the cases on early basis. The RTO-II was also trying to recovery huge amount of taxes from taxpayers during the last month of running fiscal year.
Highlighting the technical developments within the tax system, he said that the FBR introduced latest technologies and automated systems to surmount the tax frauds. It also introduced CREST and other programmes to bring ease in tax system. He said that new module of sales tax registration also helped expediting the registration process.
Discussing about tax frauds and international tax system, he gave an example of US where a tax fraudster was sentenced 25 years imprisonment. He added, “we are also trying to implement strict laws to overcome the tax evasion in Pakistan”.
The RTO-II made 88 cases under Section 40B and recovered Rs 151 million from the defaulters during the year, he revealed. He said that the field formation was mainly focusing on corporate advance tax cases, non-corporate advance tax cases, cases before courts, sales tax & withholding tax cases, revenue yielding audit cases and some others.
Informing about tax population by status, the chief said that the RTO-II collected 1.46 percent taxes from companies, 2.37 percent from AOPs, 61.74 percent from salaried persons and 34.43 percent from other individuals. “It is a difficult tax to recover tax from salaried persons as compare to the companies,” he said.
He said that trust-based working atmosphere was a key to success. For capacity building of the officials and officers, training workshop were arranged to discuss different issues of tax laws, he added.
Furthermore, cash rewards were also given to the officers and officials every month on showing the best performance, which encourage them to show high-level performance with honesty.
He also mentioned, “FBR Chairman Nisar Muhammad Khan is a professional official .as he has 35-year long experience in the tax department,” adding that the members of the board were also supporting to the RTO-II.
“Special Advisor to Prime Minster on Revenue Haroon Akhtar Khan is also a professional man who always encourages tax officers to perform their duties honestly,” he said.